Hypercompe scribonia – Giant Leopard Moth

9/25/2011 I found this caterpillar crawling on the ground - Buffalo County, Wisconsin

9/26/2011 I kept it in a container with willow leaves to eat.

Late in the fall, when it had stopped eating (and all the willow leaves were gone), and the weather was cold, I put the caterpillar in a plastic container with some wood chips. I put the plastic container in a clay flowerpot, sunk up to its rim in the ground, and covered with a clay saucer with a rock on top to keep animals out. I left it there for the winter. When I took the container out at the end of March, 2012, the caterpillar was crawling around inside. I put it back into a jar, with the wood chips, and a sprig of willow.

5/3/2012 Caterpillar and wood chips

5/3/2012 Willow with feeding damage from the caterpillar

5/23/2012 I noticed that the caterpillar had pupated. I think it had actually happened earlier, but I hadn't realized because the caterpillar had shed its whole skin. I wasn't looking very closely, and I thought the skin was the live caterpillar.